/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

namespace org.apache.commons.codec
{

    /**
     * Defines common decoding methods for byte array decoders.
     *
     * @author Apache Software Foundation
     * @version $Id: BinaryDecoder.java 651573 2008-04-25 11:11:21Z niallp $
     */
    public interface BinaryDecoder : Decoder
    {

        /**
         * Decodes a byte array and returns the results as a byte array. 
         *
         * @param pArray A byte array which has been encoded with the
         *      appropriate encoder
         * 
         * @return a byte array that contains decoded content
         * 
         * @throws DecoderException A decoder exception is thrown
         *          if a Decoder encounters a failure condition during
         *          the decode process.
         */
        byte[] decode(byte[] pArray);// throws DecoderException;
    }

}